To clarify, I don't care if a 5" brookie is sexually mature, 5 years old, and has spawned thousands of progeny. If you have little to no chance of catching a legal sized brook trout in the stream you are fishing and you continue to fish it, YOU ARE UNETHICAL!

You can rationalize your choice to continue to fish the stream however you see fit. However, make no mistake that while you may be a master of rationalization you're clearly lacking in the ability to make an ethical decision.

Carry on defending yourselves, it's amusing to me.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Posted on: 2013/1/20 14:42

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"Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel, and they tortured the timber and stripped all the land. Well they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken, then they wrote it all down as the progress of man."

Dear Tim,I don't go out trying to catch sub legal brook trout with big flies, I use big flies where I know I'll catch large brook trout. When using big streamers I seldom even get follows from dinks and I certainly don't hook them.So what your saying is don't fish for brook trout at all? Because every time you go for brook trout and use a dry fly you run into the ethics issue according to your rules, because every time you cast you're more likely to catch a dink than I am. That's why I don't use small flies.ChazPS, Oh by the way, studies show mortality tobe higher when using small flies and lures to catch trout. I don't cast large flies in places I don't think I've got a cahnce to catch large fish. But if I walk up on a pool that has good cover and a deep belly, I'm going for the biggest fish in that pool. Then after a couple of tries I'm back to a dry fly.

Phish_On wrote:I will continue to taget fish that are smaller then 5" and enjoy it. Ill be catchin while you people are elbow to elbow. Looks like almost know one agrees with you Tim murphy. waaa waaaa waaaaaaa.

+1

That's where I got the name "1wt" ...... for catchin' small fish in small water with a small fly rod!

If you guys really wanted to be ethical? Then to save the native trout streams, you should shoot every blue heron you see? Let's be honest here? Also, please shoot every stinkin' Cormorant you see in a lake or river!

If you have little to no chance of catching a legal sized brook trout in the stream you are fishing and you continue to fish it, YOU ARE UNETHICAL!

Tim - Just so we're not assuming and putting words in your mouth...could you please explain specifically why you think the above behavior makes one unethical? I reread both of your posts in the thread and although it's clear to me you believe that behavior to be unethical, I am not exactly sure of the details behind your argument.

ALL the freestone brookie streams I fish have many sub-legal brook trout. So what! They also have some larger trout. So because I may catch some small trout I should quit fishing them and if I don't I'm unethical. Get lost!

Posted on: 2013/1/20 16:15

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"Even the thousandth trip to the same familiar stream begins with renewed hope and unfailing faith." ZANE GREY

wgmiller wrote:To reduce this to its simplest terms, isn't the mere act of impaling a fish on a sharpened piece of steel and dragging it through the water for one's enjoyment "unethical" in the first place???

^^^^this^^^^

I prefer my 5 inch brookies on my pizza

seriously, like wgmiller said, if we REALLY cared about the fish, we would leave them the F@*k alone.we like to catch fish, the fish don't really like it much.

The majority of the native brookies I caught last year were on a fly tied on a Mustad #79580 size 12, which is a 4xl streamer hook, on a pattern that I have adopted as my "go to" brookie fly. (Not a wooly bugger)Unfortunately the two 3" fish I caught last year were also caught on this fly. The good thing is they were both safely released and if they continue to have that kind of appetite they may possibly be a 5 or 6 incher when I catch them next year. I will continue this process until they die of old age or a great blue heron gets them.

I don't fish these kind of streams because you can catch a bunch of fish. I do it because I enjoy the places themselves. I enjoy getting way back in there, where you could fish a whole season and be unlikely to encounter another angler. I enjoy finding such places. I enjoy finding out which trickles support trout and which don't, and why. I enjoy learning an entire drainage, not just the main stem. I enjoy the fact that trout can survive in such places, even "underground" in the smallest of trickles. I've caught fish that were literally 3", and been giddy about it, because I did not expect to find trout in that little ditch. I enjoy casting in tight quarters. I enjoy all of the beauty the day entails, and being miles from a vehicle, with no real trails. Fish are just a bonus.

Call it hiking with a side interest. It's exploring. Fishing really isn't the point, it's just what you do when you get there. Getting there was the point.

Often you just cannot do that in places where legal sized fish are the norm. That's not to say you don't catch a legal one reasonably often, but it's not necessarily the expectation, nor the goal. For me, anyway, "legal" size loses all meaning once you commit to C&R.

I too would like to know Tim's rationale behind calling it unethical. You're not endangering any populations. You're not breaking any laws. You are learning more than most about what makes a stream tick, and what dangers they face.

Tim, it doesn't have to be your cup of tea. I understand that, and there's lots of types of fishing that aren't my cup of tea, but I don't go around calling them unethical. You need to explain your rationale on WHY it's unethical.